Lesson Plan Template
Rev 10/1/09
Name: Loretta Hunt______________
Subject Area(s)__Language Arts_________
Lesson Title___ Imagery and Symbolism __
Dr. Thieman
Age/Grade Level_10th______
Unit Title: Demystifying Poetry_
Estimated Time__55 minutes______
Purpose/Rationale for lesson: Students will identify imagery and symbolism in “Dream
Boogie,” and “Harlem,” by Langston Hughes, and “Harlem Wine,” by Countée Cullen
Curriculum Framing Questions:
Essential Question: How do we make literature relevant through exploration?
Unit Question that applies to this lesson: Which tools do poets provide to help
us discover meaning in their poems?
Lesson or Content Question(s): What is the significance of imagery?
Which of the five senses are being used in these poems?
What is the significance of symbolism?
What is the common theme of all 3 poems and what do you hear from the poets
when listening to them read their poems?
Goal: To have students respond to and analyze 3 poems from the Harlem Renaissance
period with analysis of imagery, symbolism, theme, and feelings of the authors.
Learning Objective(s): Identify imagery in 3 poems from the Harlem Renaissance and
clarify the underlying ideas and emotions.
Curriculum Standard(s):
EL.HS.LI.06 – Identify themes in literary works, and provide support for interpretations
from the text.
EL.HS.LI.09 – Identify various literary devices, including figurative language, imagery,
allegory, and symbolism; evaluate the significance of the devices and explain their
appeal.
EL.HS.RE.02 – Listen to, read, and understand a wide variety of informational and
narrative text, including classic and contemporary literature, poetry, magazines,
newspapers, reference materials and online information.
Materials Needed:
All three poems – “Dream Boogie,” “Harlem,” by Langston Hughes, and “Harlem Wine,”
by Countée Cullen
Laptop
Screen (to project several pages of a word document)
1
CD of the poets reading their own poems – “The Harlem Renaissance Remembered,”
produced by Brilliance Audio, and “Langston Hughes” produced by The Voice of the
Poet.
Background knowledge or skills students need prior to lesson:
 Understanding scansion and various literary devices.
 Ability to read poems
Hook or Introduction: Play a CD of Renaissance poets reading their own work.
Procedures:
1.) Q: “How many of you have heard of the Harlem Renaissance? What do you
know of African American Poets?” Brief background of the Harlem Renaissance,
while the poems are projected up on the screen with photos of the poets (See
pages (See pages 4-8 of lesson plan). I will explain that Harlem Renaissance was a
period of time after WWI (ending in the 30s), when a cultural movement erupted
in Harlem. Very talented African Americans contributed music, art and literature.
Q: Does anyone know what Imagery or Symbolism is?
(5 minutes).
2.) I will explain symbolism and imagery by telling students that Imagery and
symbolism are similar in that writers use these devices to use “images” or
“symbols” to describe feelings and impressions. Give examples of both. (I.e.
cherry tree symbolizes honesty, etc.). Images are descriptive (i.e. My daughter’s
hugs warm my heart). Further define Symbolism and Imagery for clarification
(see page 4 of lesson plan). Ask students to take out their vocabulary sheets (see
page 10-12 of lesson plan) Ask students to fill in Imagery and Symbolism on their
vocabulary sheets. (5 minutes)
3.) Have the students listen to the poems being recited, paying close attention to
which words illicit one of the five senses or stand for something other than what
it is. Discuss the social themes of the poems, explaining that in 1910 African
American realtors and church groups purchased a large block along 135 th street
in Harlem. Have the students listen to the poems one at a time. (10 minutes)
4.) Have the students write in paragraph form what they feel when they view the
words “Daddy,” “Harlem” and “Wine.” Remind them that with symbolism, the
words “stand for” something else, and imagery appeals to the 5 senses. These
are words written on the board. Ask whom “Daddy” might mean or symbolize in
Dream Boogie, what images come to mind when the student’s read “raisin in the
sun.” What is the Harlem wine? (5 minutes)
2
5.) I will share some of my “images” of these words and then ask the students to
share some of theirs with the class. (5 minutes)
6.) Pull up “Dream Boogie,” &“Harlem,” by Langston Hughes and “Harlem Wine,” by
Countée Cullen separately on a laptop from www.poets.org. Have volunteers
read from the screen out loud. Students must pick one of these poems and scan
it, as they were taught in an earlier lesson. (10 minutes)
7.) Ask students to get into groups based on counting off, breaking into groups no
larger than 5 people, and search these three poems for symbolism or imagery
and discuss. (10 minutes)
8.) A spokesperson from each group will go up to the front of the class and write
one or two terms that were repeated or agreed upon by the group. As other
students from the group to take notice of commonality.(5 minutes)
Differentiation/Accommodation (for diverse learners in your classroom.)
With 30 students, 15 of which are male and 15 female, I have one student with ADHD,
and one student with an IEP for reading and writing at an 8 th grade level. Two students
have English as a second language and one is a TAG student.
Accommodation:
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For the child with ADHD, I would try to draw his attention to the lesson (find
something that is of interest to him/her) whenever I notice that he/she is having
trouble focusing. He or she could also write his images to the three terms
“Daddy,” “Harlem” and “Wine,” up on the board so there is a reason for the
student to get up and walk around. Group discussion will also require
movement.
ELL students can ask for explanation of individual words during group discussion.
The groups can also read their section of the poem out loud instead of quietly.
The IEP student who is reading at an 8th grade level could read only one poem,
the African American poem, “Bean Eater” by Robert Burns, which is full of
symbols, imagery and wordplay.
The TAG student could read more poems from the Harlem Renaissance period,
explaining when and why Harlem became the literary hub for African Americans.
Additional peer or instructional assistance as needed.
There will be hard copies of poems available for anyone to take home a personal
copy.
3
Attention to Literacy: Stress the historical and cultural relevance of this time period for
African Americans in our culture.
Closure: Identify imagery in the poems “Dream Boogie,” &“Harlem,” by Langston
Hughes and “Harlem Wine,” by Countée Cullen and discuss as a group. Identify the
feelings of the authors. Ask questions about the day’s discussions.
Assessment and Evaluation of Student Learning:
 Listen to how the students are interpreting Imagery and identifying images in the
poems. Read what the students wrote about what they saw and felt when I put
the trigger words on the board.
 I will be able to tell who is grasping the concepts by participation level.
Attachments:
IMAGERY AND SYMBOLISM:
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Use “images” or “symbols” to describe feelings and impressions
Images – descriptive, adjectives, color; appeals to the 5 senses.
Symbolism – “stand for” something else - cherry tree symbolizes honesty. A bird
flying in the sky could symbolize freedom.
Harlem Renaissance

As World War I approached, there was a shortage of workers in New York, so
many African Americans moved to New York from southern states in order to
find paying work and escape inequality and racism in the south.

Art, music, literature – cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 30s ,
centered in Harlem
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“Hughes says that the “Negro was in Vogue”
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New York was the cultural center of America
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Supporter of the Harlem Renaissance were both black and white.
4
DREAM BOOGIE
By Langston Hughes
Good morning, daddy!
Ain't you heard
The boogie-woogie rumble
Of a dream deferred?
Listen closely:
You'll hear their feet
Beating out and Beating out a -You think
It's a happy beat?
Listen to it closely:
Ain't you heard
something underneath
like a -What did I say?
Sure,
I'm happy!
Take it away!
Hey, pop!
Re-bop!
Mop!
Y-e-a-h!
Lines 5-9: The rest of the statement is thwarted (stopped)…
“Daddy” (line 1) Symbolism in two ways:
A) An emblem of the white patron (Hughes & others
relied on white patrons to pursue their art),
whose support is coupled with ideological
regulation.
B) “Daddy” = black figure himself – “The Happy
Darky”
Either way, “Daddy” symbolizes a regulating agent.
Langston Hughes was also a playwright
Harlem (sometimes referred to as “Dream Deferred”
By Langston Hughes
5
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
 These are part of a montage of “Dream Deferred.”
 Hughes – frustrated African American dream of self-creation and
self-expression.
 The dream is deferred (4) – not allowed to materialize
 Psychological Homelessness – unable to find a cultural and
psychological reference
 Liberation – pushing to be part of a larger society
Harlem Wine
By Countée Cullen
This is not water running here,
These thick rebellious streams
That hurtle flesh and bone past fear
Down alleyways of dreams
This is a wine that must flow on
6
Not caring how or where
So it has ways to flow upon
Where song is in the air.
So it can woo an artful flute
With loose elastic lips
Its measurements of joy compute
With blithe, ecstatic hips.
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Wine could symbolize success and/or blood of Black Americans
Countée Cullen was considered a romantic poet
7
Countée Cullen
8
Langston Hughes
9
CI 513.001
Mini-unit project: Unwrapping Poetry
Vocabulary Worksheet
Over the next unit, you will be learning poetry vocabulary. During and after each lesson,
create definitions for these terms based on information you have gathered in class. You
will be turning these worksheets in prior to your final assignment.
Lesson 1: Unwrapping a Poem
Poem
Form
Literary Devices:
Lesson 2: Scansion:
Foot
Meter
(Monometer, Dimeter, Trimeter, Tetrameter, Pentameter, Hexameter, Heptameter)
Iamb
Trochee
Dactyl
Anapest
10
Pyrrhic
Spondee
Lesson 3: Comparisons
Metaphor
Simile
Lesson 4: Imagery
Imagery
Symbolism
Lesson 5: Rhythm
Rhyme
Rhyme scheme
Enjambment
Villanelle
Shakespearean/Petrarchan Sonnet
11
Couplet,
Tercet
Quatrain
12